Operation: Sleeping Beauty
by almost anonymous98
Summary: Something I did for school- a Fairy tale with a twist. What if Sleeping Beauty was the bad guy? relatively short. R


Operation: Sleeping Beauty

On this particular evening, in the Royal Palace of Schorinio, a feast was busily being prepared for the arrival of the royal guest, Princess Danika of the Harlan Kingdom, later to be known as Sleeping Beauty. The Prince of the Schorinio Kingdom, Aric, stood by the window of his chambers, looking on to the setting sun, contemplating what the arrival of their guest would mean. He knew from the hints his father, King Ruben, had been giving him that he was hoping for a marriage, but not having met the Princess, Aric did not know what to think. Knowing his father's expectations made him slightly uneasy, but then again he did not know the princess yet.

On the other side of the Schorinio Kingdom, a young, beautiful girl was making her way to the Royal Palace. No, this is not Princess Danika; this is Crystal, a criminal and infamous escape artist. Yesterday, she was contacted by a dwarf offering a large sum of money in exchange for the royal history book. So now she speeds down the darkening lanes towards the back entrance of the palace.

Princess Danika arrived at the Royal Palace in a carriage pulled by four white horses. While the servants took her luggage to her room, the guards escorted her to the Great Dining Hall. There, she was met by the Prince and the King, who were already seated but hadn't started eating. After the greeted and exchanged pleasantries, she sat down, looking around the candlelit room with a high ceiling and gold and deep red décor.

"This is a fine feast you've prepared," complimented Princess Danika.

"Thank you, all in your honour," replied the King.

Once their plates were filled with food, the Princess and the King settled into conversation - they talked about the wonders of the Schorinio Kingdom, her home of Harlan and the plans for the next day.

Aric was silent throughout the meal. Remembering his father's expectations, he suddenly felt uneasy again. Was he really to marry the Princess? Of course, nothing was final yet but he knew what everyone expected to happen. Normally, matters like this didn't bother him much but something about Princess wasn't quite right. He didn't know if it was the seemingly fake enthusiasm for everything the King said or the way she eyed the gold-plated cutlery, either way, it made Aric uncomfortable.

When the meal was over, everyone headed off to their quarters. While the Prince headed to his, he noticed a piece of paper that seemed to be dropped on the marble floor. Curious, he unfolded the paper, looked around the empty corridor and read the message. It read:

_"Danika,_

_ In two days from now you shall set off to the Schorinio Kingdom and I expect you come back as the Queen of said Kingdom. Do whatever it takes, as a witch of the Lunar Sisterhood, I know you will._

_ Yours,_

_ Tarsia of the West"_

Aric was shocked. Being Queen of the Kingdom would involve marrying him, killing the King, and then killing him. He had suspected the Princess had ulterior motives for visiting his kingdom but his suspicions only went as far as wanting to join their royal family not to take over their kingdom. '_And by the notorious Lunar Sisterhood, no less_,' he thought.

Feeling slightly stressed, he head off the library to organise his thoughts.

While the royal family were dining, Crystal had already broken into the palace library. Stealthily, she manoeuvred around the bookshelves, with a torch, looking for the history book. When she did find it, the door suddenly opened and she froze.

Aric had entered the library to find a light coming from the archives section. Thinking that the librarian had forgot to blow out the candles, he walked over to that section, and found a statue-still girl, dressed in black with several ropes looped around her waist.

"I-I was just cleaning up…," she stammered.

The Prince, quickly composed himself, and said, "you expect me to believe that you're a maid clean the library at 10 o'clock, while you're wearing abseiling gear?"

"Well, I suppose it was a bit far-fetched," she muttered, and then said, "what would a Prince be doing wandering the halls at this time?"

"I don't think you're in a position to ask questions," said Aric defensively. He remembered why he came in the first place, to figure out what to do about Danika. Suddenly, a metaphoric light bulb appeared over his head, "Okay, so here's the deal; I won't call on the palace guards if you help me with something."

Crystal looked sceptical, "…help with something?"

Not bothering to explain, Aric handed her the page that he had found. Crystal read the paper, she would be lying if she said she wasn't surprised but just nonchalantly replied, "So?"

Aric was displeased with the amount of interest she was showing and exclaimed, "So this means the death of me and my father and this kingdom being ruled by a witch of the Lunar Sisterhood!"

"That doesn't make a difference to me."

"Help me or I'll call the guards"

"Fine, what's the plan?"

"That's what I need help with," Aric said uncertainly, unwilling to admit his lack of planning.

"Wait, what was the question, again?"

Aric wondered, what did he what to achieve? He didn't really want to kill the princess, but then again he couldn't leave this case without justice.

"I need your help with removing Princess Danika as a threat to our kingdom," he answered.

So, the deal was made, Crystal would help get rid of Danika and Aric wouldn't charge Crystal for her infringements. They planned late into that night and by morning; they would put their plan into action.

Before the sun had risen, Crystal had already set out on her horse. As the plan required, she was alone, for Aric had his own part to play in the plan. Her destination: the residency of the Witch of Redfield. '_Fight fire with fire_,' she thought.

She knew she could just run away, now that she was out of the Palace, but some part of her genuinely wanted to help Aric, and the other didn't want to go to jail.

"So this is Lake Winter…" Aric trailed of, bored of labelling all the kingdoms landmarks.

"It's so beautiful! You know, we have a lake just like this at our kingdom…" she then continued to go on about that lake, her kingdom and somehow ended up talking about her seventh birthday party.

Aric was bored to death, but being polite, he put on what he hoped looked like an interested expression.

Crystal arrived at the witch's cottage by ten o'clock. She knocked twice on the door and out appeared Elma, the Witch of Redfield.

"Hello dear, how can I help?" she asked cheerfully.

Crystal had only heard of Elma's sorcery and was taken aback by her friendliness, "I…uh…sleeping potion…"

"I would assume you would a bit more than your average insomnia cure," she said, and then added, "oh, I'm sorry, please do come in."

Crystal stepped inside her cottage, and found it neatly arranged and free of the obnoxious smell that usually accompanies witchcraft.

"So, what type of sleeping potion were you looking for, dear?" Elma asked while putting a kettle on the stove.

"I forgot the name but I need one that makes someone sleep forever."

"Ah… So you have heard of the powers of the Agthoven flower. It is common misconception that it makes one sleep forever, it merely makes one sleep until they are no longer a hindrance to the person who put them asleep or they get too old to sleep on."

"Yes that is the one… Well, I'll get one of those, please."

"Of course, dear, that'll be ninety two dollars and fifteen cents."

Crystal handed her the money and was back off to the palace.

Crystal sneaked into the palace, and liked they planned, put it on to the prick of the spindle in the royal quarters. Aric said he would have liked an old-fashioned poison-in-the-goblet but the Agthoven flower had to be administered straight into the bloodstream.

Crystal now waited for the plan to be completed, so she could leave once 'the princess was no longer a threat.'

It past noon by the time Aric had finished giving Danika a tour of the palace gardens. They were now walking down the hall towards the royal quarters. Aric hoped Crystal had finished arranging everything by now.

Aric and Danika both arrived and met the King at the room in between all the bedrooms. Aric spotted the spindle in the corner.

The King and the Princess were having a conversation on what she thought of the Kingdom, when the conversation turned to the possibility of Danika and Aric's marriage. The King looked at Aric expectantly. '_Time for the plan,_' thought Aric.

"Umm… I think that it would be fair that we put a … Sort of test in place, because… You would want the future queen to be worthy, right? Not that I'm saying she's not worthy or anything… It's just traditional," Aric said.

The King was slightly annoyed that Aric wouldn't just give in but just said, "That's sounds reasonable. What sort of test?"

"Spinning thread," Aric replied almost too quickly, "Oh, look, there's a spindle right here, how convenient!"

The Princess looked doubtful, but moved to the corner where the spindle was and started spinning thread. After spinning about a metre of thread, the Princess pricked her finger and was lying in the ground in seconds.

After all the legal matters were resolved, the sleeping princess was put into a Castle were she slept next to the spindle. After Aric showed the King the note, the King forgave him. As for Crystal, although she could of left, she didn't; she got married to Aric and they lived happily ever after.

**please review!**


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